Monday, September 24, 2012

One man's opinion of Gunwalker, and the 'Don't abolish ATF,

the replacement might be worse!" argument:Right. Now we’ll see Holder spun as some sort of hero. Great. But
that’s not what’s important. Holder – and Obama, for that matter – had
absolutely nothing to do with what made the whole F&F thing exciting
to me. They’re political apparatchiks, here today and gone forever. I
never wanted this to be about them. God, how I wanted it to be about
ATF.

And the irony is that by all accounts (damned if I’m going to try to
read it) this “report” excoriated ATF. Granted it’s not the first time
and the damned zombie of an alphabet-agency not only always manages to
wiggle out but even to get its power and authority increased.
Yes, this “report” will be forgotten now, if the government and the
“news” has anything to say about it. But still, there it is in black and
white. Look at it again, America. Here are your heroic protectors, who
don’t give a shit about you. Who’ll cheerfully get Americans (not to
mention hundreds or thousands of Mexicans) killed to make a single
propaganda point. “Botched operation,” my ass. The only thing that was
botched was that the ATF brass finally found something so low even ATF
field agents wouldn’t swallow it.

Yes, I see and acknowledge the logic of those who said that if by
some miracle ATF vanished forever its “duties” would only be taken over
by some other federal agency, maybe even a competent one may God forbid.
ATF’s only saving grace all these decades has been its ineptitude, and
its love of the brutal gesture over common sense.I acknowledge it – and I don’t care. ATF has been my enemy since I
was a kid, watching my own sibling demonized on the news (not by name,
granted, but as part of a class) as a foul, evil “kitchen table dealer”
because he had the effrontery to try to comply with the law and get an
FFL. Oh, that’s a grave I’ve waited a long, long time to piss on. And
now I watch another opportunity slip away.

What a symbol it would be – the disbandment of the ATF. I get a
little smile on my face just thinking about it. No, in practical terms
it might not change much but think about the message it sends. To
actually bring the destruction of a federal alphabet agency? You think
the others wouldn’t notice that? Oh, baby. I think I need a cigarette.

E-mail me

at elmtreeforge at att point net

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences. - C.S. Lewis

Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place. So now I'm asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this - they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people... better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin'. I aim to misbehave. - Capt. Mal

A Rifleman’s Prayer:Oh Lord, I would live my life in freedom, peace and happiness, enjoying the simple pleasures of hearth and home. I would die an old, old man in my own bed, preferably of sexual overexertion.

But if that is not to be, Lord, if monsters such as this should find their way to my little corner of the world on my watch, then help me to sweep those bastards from the ramparts, because doing that is good, and right, and just.

And if in this I should fall, let me be found atop a pile of brass, behind the wall I made of their corpses. Geek with a .45

"He's Black Council,", I said.

"Or maybe stupid," Ebenezar countered.

I thought about it. "Not sure which is scarier."

Ebenezar blinked at me, then snorted. "Stupid, Hoss. Every time. Only so many blackhearted villains in the world, and they only get uppity on occasion. Stupid's everywhere, every day." Ebenezar McCoy

“A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition” ― Rudyard Kipling